How to go about mobile banking

Heard about mobile banking? “Yes,” pat comes the reply from Mumbai-based Supriya Pandit. She was issued a Mobile Money Identifier (MMID) by her bank, two months back. But the 30-year old graphic designer doesn’t know how to use it.
MMID is a seven-digit number issued by your bank for transactions through mobile banking. There will be different MMIDs for different savings accounts but all these can be linked to one mobile number. Axis Bank, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, recently launched Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) or mobile banking. “The idea is to enable quick transfer of funds through mobile phones,” a senior official at State Bank of India (SBI) said. While mobile banking is available free of cost for the consumer, a transaction cost (of 10 paise) for availing IMPS is levied by National Payments Corporation on the bank from which the money is transferred.
You can transfer money across banks, provided the beneficiary bank is registered for mobile banking. As per the Reserve Bank of India norms, an individual can transfer up to Rs 50,000 per day but you can receive an unlimited amount. Transfer of funds can be done by anyone who has an MMID but he needs to be a registered net banking user. Net banking users automatically get registered for mobile banking. Apart from fund transfer, mobile banking can also be used for purchase of goods and services, making bill payments, investments in mutual funds or creating fixed deposits.

Here’s how to go about m-banking. (This is the process for Kotak Mahindra Bank, the process may differ slightly for other banks)
Step 1: If you are registered for net-banking, download the mobile banking application form from the bank’s website. Or, send an SMS to the customer care service and get the link for the mobile application.
Step 2: When you run the application, you will need your net banking username and password to log in. On logging in, you will get the activation number or the (IMEI) number, to activate your account.
Step 3: The application gives the option of banking, investment and change password.
Step 4: Under the banking head you can also pay bills, request for cheque books and report loss of debit cards. Under the investment head you can buy and redeem investments in mutual fund schemes.
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Federal bank launches Mobile money transfer service

The service, which enables real time fund transfer via mobile, is now available with 12 banks. Allahabad bank will launch the service next month.

Federal Bank, a private sector bank, has launched the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS), a real-time fund transfer facility through mobile phone, in association with National Payment Corporation of India.

The new facility was launched by Dileep, Malayalam film actor in the presence of Shyam Srinivasan, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank.

Inter-bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) is operated by National Payment Corporation of India's (NPCI), which is the umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in the country owned and operated by banks.

There are 12 other banks which offer this service including SBI, ICICI, Axis Bank, Kotak, Bank of India, HDFC, Lakhsmi Vilas bank, Union bank of India, Yes Bank, Corporation bank, Indian Bank, and Oriental bank of commerce. Allahabad bank is also in the process of starting this service.

At present, a majority of interbank mobile fund transfer transactions take place through the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) system. Under this, the transactions are processed and settled in batches during the working hours from 9am to 7pm, and not in real time.

IMPS scheme, allows customer to transfer funds instantaneously to any other bank account using mobile phone. The other account, however, needs to be IMPS registered as well. The service is offered without any restriction on timings.

The customer who wants to transfer funds or to receive funds has to register for mobile banking with the bank. Once registered, an MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) is generated. The MMID is a seven-digit number issued by the bank upon registration. Customer also has an option to register for receiving funds only.

The unique combination of mobile number and MMID is all that is required for the transaction to take place. The customer will simply need to enter the beneficiary's mobile number and MMID along with the amount to be transferred. Both the remitter and beneficiary will receive SMS confirmation of the transaction.

These transactions can be initiated by downloading the mobile banking application of customer's banks in his mobile or by sending an SMS in a predefined format. However using SMS only Rs 1000 can be sent everyday and there is a cap of Rs 5000 for a month. This cap is higher with the use of an application (downloaded on the phone), and allows transfer funds up to Rs 50,000 daily.

The service providers a unique preposition to bank and users, the banks gain as the service reduces the cost of fund transfer, customers benefit as the save on time. The service was launched in the last quarter of 2010.source